Reading Poker Hands

Written by Stanley Majors

Reading Poker hands will dramatically increase your win percentages, but learning this skill is not an easy task. It takes hours of play, a good memory and an attentive eye.

Reading poker hands is not most important part of any poker armoury, and it's not very useful for low stakes poker rooms either. Players at this level are not very skilled making them unpredictable and harder to read.

But as you become more experienced and start to move up to higher stakes games you'll begin to find that your opponents will actually be reading your play. And if you don't learn to read their hands you'll be at a big disadvantage.

This skill can only be developed through experience but by following these tips you should be able to accelerate your learning.

How often do you track actions of your opponents, guessing what he is holding begins by reading his bets. Often players forget who actually raised or checked in Flop or Pre-Flop. Keep a close eye on betting in early rounds and use this information to add to in later rounds.

Don't play more than one poker table at a time, you will not be able to follow both games in detail.

Even if you fold pre-flop, don't lose you focus on game. You can pick up some useful bits of information about a particular player's style during this time.

Short Hand Texas Holdem Poker

Written by Stanley Majors

Short Hand Texas Poker refers poker games that have less than 4 or 5 players at table. Being a good short hand player is vital if you're interested in either moving up to higher level games or playing in poker tournaments where rewards are much higher.

Short Hand Texas Holdem Poker games will quickly expose weaknesses of most players, because you will be playing many more hands against same players. Your opponents will eventually be able to pick up your style of play and use it to get an advantage over you - if they're good enough.

The strategy used for these games is dramatically different from strstegy you'll use at a full poker room. The main reason for this is because odds that anyone at table will be dealt strong hands are much lower. So bluffing and semi-bluffing becomes a lot more important and being able to read your opponents' hands will give you edge over them.

Remember that if you get caught bluffing, it won't be a total loss. There's no better feeling than reading and calling your opponents bluff and often players will start to call everything. You'll be able to use this to your advantage and maximise your profits by inviting them to bet against your strong hands.